Man plays guitar during brain surgery

NEW DELHI: An astonishing moment was witnessed during a brain surgery of a man when he played guitar while lying down on an operation table.

As per a report in Times of India, the 32-year-old techie-turned-musician played the instrument on the operation table even as surgeons ‘burned’ his brain to correct a neurological disorder.

It is said that the 7-hour surgery was performed to cure him from a condition called musician’s dystonia.

Musician’s dystonia, also known as Musician’s cramp, is a neurological motor disorder characterised by involuntary, prolonged muscle contractions, which cause affected parts of the body to be twisted into abnormal postures. It occurs due to abnormal and involuntary flexion of muscles, because of rigorous use.

The disorder can affect a range of parts of the body including the neck, eyes, voice and hand. Usually, men are commonly affected by musician’s dystonia than women.

In this case, while the doctors “burned” parts of his brain that triggered the abnormal tremors in his muscles, the youth was made to play the guiter to help them locate the troublesome areas.

Brain surgery is often carried out on patients who are concious and is done in a similar manner as conventional surgery. Because by remaining awake, surgeons can continuously locate the exact location of the affected area without having accidentally strike some of the brain functions.

“This is a surgery where the part of the brain triggering abnormal tremors is destroyed by burning. Before the surgery, a special frame was fixed to his head with four screws going deep into the skull following which an MRI was conducted,” the TOI report quoted Dr Sharan Srinivasan, a stereotactic and functional neurosurgeon at Jain Institute of Movement Disorders and Stereotactic Neurosurgery, as saying.

These MRI images showed three coordinates of the target area in the brain (8-9cm deep, in this case) along with the entry point to the skull and the path to be followed during surgery.

“Based on these coordinates, a 14mm hole was drilled into the skull under local anaesthesia and a specialized electrode was passed into the brain following which it was stimulated to confirm the right location and prevent complications,” he said.

Within three days of surgery, he was able to walk out of the hospital and all set to play guitar again, the report added.

It’s not the first time

In 2015, a Brazilian patient stunned doctors by playing The Beatles song ‘Yesterday’ on his guitar while having brain surgery.

Anthony Kulkamp Dias, 33, was kept conscious during his operation to remove a tumour and played the British classic for the surgery team.

He also played Emanuel, a song he wrote for his newborn son, as well as Brazilian country songs.

Mr Kulkamp, who played guitar professionally for 20 years, discovered the tumour 15 days after his son was born a few months ago. He told local media he could not even say the name of his car and was stammering as a result.

“I played six songs at certain times,” he said. “My right hand was a bit weaker because that was the side that they were operating on. So I stopped and rested. I was interspersing songs and talking with them.”

The pioneering surgery allowed doctors to safely map the patient’s brain while awake to avoid injury that could compromise important brain functions.

Still from another brain surgery in March 2017 when patient played a guitar while lying on a operation table.